TT Ep 154 – Questions That Matter in Your First Conversation with the Seller

Christy: Hey, team. Welcome to episode 154 of Transition Talk, where we talk about dental transitions and how to navigate the sometimes messy path to practice ownership. Picture this. You’re a buyer preparing for your first conversation with a seller, and you know this could make or break the deal. Dun, dun.

You’ve done your initial research, but now you’re wondering, “What should I actually ask when the conversation starts? What topics matter most? How do I not offend them?” In this episode, we’ll walk through the key talking points every buyer should hit and how to make a lasting, positive impression on the seller.

So we’ll teach you today about the interview. We have another episode on this content, episode three. So way back in the day, if you wanna hear baby Christy and baby Charles talk, go to episode three. But that was focused more on the dos and don’ts. And since then, those are still very applicable. Still stand by all those dos and don’ts. But I would say that we get a lot of questions on the meat of the conversation: what do I actually talk about? How do I ask these questions?

I know that buyers are hungry to get more about the opportunity and about the practice, and really understand, is this a viable opportunity for me? But if you walk into that interview or that meeting and you come off like a robot just shooting off a bunch of questions, or you ask a question in the wrong way, it can certainly set the wrong tone, and it can just feel stilted.

So our goal today is to walk through some of the topics that we think you should try to hit if you have an interview. And I’ll caveat, it doesn’t have to be one interview. A lot of the times you’ll meet with a potential seller multiple times, and so you can sprinkle these out. But we’ll cover all of them today.

Charles: One thing I wanna say, Christy, is because, when you listen to a podcast, it’s typically we’re walking, we’re multitasking. Okay? We’re not just old-school listening to a podcast with pen and paper. For the listener, I want to remind you that this is transcribed as far as the notes. So if you’ve not gone to the NDP blog and been able to see exactly what some of our content is about, it is there.

This is definitely 100% one of those episodes where it’d be really good to go directly to the blog to look and see these questions. This is gonna be a tool you can print off or use to create your own checklist of questions when you go on that interview. And I hate to put that pressure on you, but the interview is so important.

And being so prepared, because the person, in this case, the interviewer, we’re immediately kinda judging. We’re looking at perhaps a resume, in this case a CV, your clinical experience or lack of. And so we’re just thinking about everything, that you sat in the lobby.

We’re asking the person, what do you think of her? What do you think of him? Were they late? Did you have any interaction? We’re constantly in this mode of, what are we gonna get? So to be prepared for something like this, along with a set of very appropriate questions, I think it is critical.

Christy: I do too.

Charles: And it’s something where you just cannot take this lightly. You’re $500,000 of debt, and we’re going into, in this case, to perhaps a private practice that could lead to an ownership position. I think that it’s probably one of the most important interviews you’re gonna have in your life.

Christy: I agree. And if I didn’t say this in episode three, then we’ll tack it on here. Don’t just write these out and think about them in your head. Say them out loud. Use your spouse, your friend, your mirror. Saying words out loud and actually asking the questions and making sure it feels natural is really important because we live in our head, and then you start, you try to read something, so being prepared and doing some coaching with someone before you start this is helpful.

Charles: One thing to add there is, yes, these are the suggested questions, but also they need to be your questions. Because be prepared that the interviewer perhaps does something like, “What do you mean by that?” So at least have some direction and understanding with why you’re asking some of these questions, for sure.

Christy: Okay. So first topic, I think asking a seller and saying, “Tell me about the practice you’ve built,” right?

Just general, I think, opening up with a general question about the practice overall and getting them to talk. So what are some things that would fall under this bucket of type of question?

Charles: Yeah. So let’s manage our time. If we’ve got an hour and a half for the interview, let’s start with some very broad questions, and let’s get that doctor to open up.

And remember, you’re showing up, you’ve got pen and paper, you’re taking notes and asking permission with that. But yeah, we’re starting off with some big-picture stuff about the practice you built, and hopefully that could get this doctor talking. Maybe some things that we’re trying to get out of this are what’s perhaps driving the practice.

Driving the practice could be lots of things. Could be the new patient flow. We get 30, 40 new patients. We’re in a military community base where a lot of those military patients have this insurance. It could be the types of cases perhaps that really drive this practice, and that has all to do with the training and perhaps the marketing or the big hygiene practice.

Or it just could be, it’s just a good old crown-and-bridge, seven, eight new patients, and maybe they don’t really expand on that. But we’re trying to get them to talk about what’s making the thing work, the success that they’re having, the type of practice. So big, giant picture: what’s built this thing, right?

Christy: Yep. Absolutely. And I think their answers to those big questions will drive follow-up questions. And so that allows you to ask questions like, if they say, “Hey, it’s a big, military base,” or, “There’s a few big corporations that moved in and we got a new influx of patients.”

“Oh, really? What insurance is that? Do you take that insurance?” Or it allows you to start asking some follow-up questions about those bigger pieces.

Charles: Yeah, and I think that can, you’re trying to figure out and navigate that conversation into what that clinical philosophy could be. Every dentist is gonna have an opinion of where they went and their philosophical training and who they were mentored by. So get them to, obviously, talk about that. What natural, kinda follow-up questions are there?

Is the training and CE that perhaps they have received? That great open-ended question now to talk about the opportunity: what additional training and opportunity, or maybe CE, do you think someone like me would be able to invest in that would serve your patients?

Okay? So when you’re in that interview, you want that interviewer to be thinking about you, and so it’s natural for you to say that, if I were to be in this practice with you, Christy, or we were working together in that associateship, show that confidence in that type of conversation and lead this interview. It may be perceived as you’re gonna be interviewed, but this is actually a reverse where we want you to take that lead.

Christy: Yeah. And I think the answers to the clinical philosophy or these bigger-picture questions also allow you to understand what you may need to highlight about your own skill set, right?

If a doctor is super passionate about their hour-long new patient visits and spending that time chairside with them and going through that, then maybe your demeanor and how you connect with patients and kinda how you feel about that is really important to talk about. Or maybe they are really clinical and they wanna talk about certain procedures; then maybe your ability or trainings that you have already done related to those procedures might allow you to kinda have a connection, right?

Again, you’re trying to figure out what matters to this person who has built this beautiful business. What do I need to know about the business, but also what would entice them to think of me, and how do I start making those connection points?

Charles: Yeah. So back on that philosophy, back on the CE, it is your job in the interview to figure out what training this person has done. And that way you’re leading that conversation with, “I know that you trained at Spear, Kois or Pankey. I know you went through this. I know that according to the website, you got this implantology recognition back in 2007. Explain to me on the practice, like the number of patients that you might see in a certain month in that.” Two things. You have a passion to do that and you’re not trained, or you’ve already done those trainings. Or if they’re referring out these types of patients, being able to incorporate, “Okay, that’s great because that is something that I am trained in or have a passion to be trained in.”

Christy: Yep. Absolutely. It highlights opportunities for you as a potential new owner as well. Yeah. That leads to the patients. Clearly, I know and you know from this line of business that when someone is looking to transition, I just wanna take care of my patients and staff. And so really focusing on those two topics, I think, as part of this interview is really important.

And that, tell me about your patient base. Tell me about the community. What are we hoping to gain from those types of questions beyond the just obvious getting them to talk?

Charles: Yeah, they love their patients. And it is something that’s really important to them. So, it’s just an opportunity. It’s almost like asking someone about their family. They’re going to open up, and we’ll talk about team here in a second. But those patients are gonna be something they’re gonna want to expand upon. Sure, you can ask questions, some detailed questions about the age.

Is it newer family? Is it more of your kinda 40-to-60 group? Is there a unique demographic where you’re dealing with much more of a senior population because maybe this dentist, the seller, is maybe in their 70s? They’ve had kind of that patient for a long time.

You’re just trying to think about the patients that you are easily connected to. The ones that you’re gonna figure out in this case if you were in dental schools at D2 that you love five-year-olds or 80-year-olds or you don’t. You’re going to figure it out. You’re gonna figure out the types of procedures that you enjoy doing and kinda where those fit.

So, it’s really getting that doctor to kinda open up about something important and these patients. Even on the practice I wanna make sure that when you download the blog, there’s gonna be more questions here. I want you to be thinking about some open questions that if the doctor doesn’t expand when we’re talking back about the practice, I wanna think about have there been any major changes.

It could be in technology. It could be employee changes. We could have questions on the consistency of the practice and growth of the procedure mix and things that are referred out. So, I want this blog to be really important as a good tool. And some of these questions that we have as a group decided to be, I think, relevant to the fact-gathering of the practice.

They don’t have to come out in the interview. This could be follow-up questions that we have post-interview. And that could be where you have this list of questions that we can come back to afterwards.

And say, “Would it be okay, I know that we’re getting short on time, for me to follow up with an email,” which is simply some additional questions about the practice, and then would it be appropriate, even some of the financials? So, this is the interview. Build that relationship so that we can ask for more, for sure.

Christy: Yeah. Absolutely. And if we talk about the team, clearly another very important component of this, I think it’s completely okay to just ask a very open question to start with, “Tell me about your team,” who are they? How many? If you don’t know this, if maybe they don’t have a thorough website or maybe you haven’t been able to opine that from your initial diligence, how long have they been with you? I know staffing can be a challenge, and you can even acknowledge something that probably every owner who’s listening to this is thinking.

Tell me about your team. Tell me about, what are they like? And they probably will be an open book, in our experience, about who they are.

Charles: Yeah. I’d just have the doctors walk through kind of the departments, front and back office, by team, and just seeing them light up about these individual employees.

And definitely, if the website is updated and they have all the employees listed, go ahead and have that prepared and break that in by department. So when you do talk about the team, go ahead and point out, “Hey, I know that JoEllen and Christy are kinda your key team members, and it looks like she’s been here this or she does this, and so certainly wanna hear about them first.”

Something where it could be a spouse that’s listed on the same last name, obviously. It could be the spouse being the office manager. How active is Suzy in the practice? I believe being a spouse, sometimes they could be heavily involved, and sometimes they could just come in and do some things kinda after-hours.

So, getting that, and then also just talk about leadership qualities that they have. Talk about getting them to share things with the nature of, definitely this is her strength, and then any challenges from a team perspective. A shortage or just a team member that has some challenges.

Could be being on time. It could be attitude, things like that. We’re definitely in a tough environment where keeping everybody happy is challenging, so this is the nice way to say everybody’s experiencing it. Give me the goods on Susie. If she’s having a bad day, I wanna hear about it.

Christy: Yep. And I think that from both the team and patient perspective, it’s a great question to say what qualities would someone need to be a good fit for your patients? What qualities or what traits would make someone a good fit for your team? You’re not asking them to grade you on the spot if you ask.

If you said this in a different way, you could be like, “Do you think I’d be a good fit?” That’s super awkward. It is, ’cause if they don’t or if they do or they think, so I think asking it in a way that allows them to think about just what type of person, without it being you, is a great way to get more information too.

And I’ll say that we’re gonna shift to some other topics. I could easily see just the high-level overview, “Tell me about your team. Tell me about your patients,” taking up an entire interview, right? So, if there are certain questions like Charles just said, you can always follow up.

Don’t break the flow of an interview to, “Oh, I’ve gotta ask this question about the building,” or, “I need to ask this question.” Let it come later. So, with that, the building is oftentimes a really important component of a transition. Buyer might own it, or seller might own it, or seller might lease it, right?

And so, I think, if you’re in the practice, if you go and do an interview and you’re there, some of these things might not be applicable. If you meet them at a diner or at a coffee shop or something like that and you’ve never been in the space, then you can certainly talk about some of the more operational, like number of chairs, number of quiet rooms.

What is the equipment like? So, what are your thoughts on the building and space?

Charles: Yeah. You want to think about yourself. You wanna think about the growth of the practice. You wanna think if it’s a general practice and hygiene. You wanna think about expansion. You wanna think about if you have a spouse that’s gonna come to the practice.

Associate, is it just a lease space that we’re gonna work in for a few years, or is it a building? These are just all super important to physically see.

And then certainly, this is their house. Even if it’s outdated, find something to compliment them on.

What are some things if, that, if you said, “Oh, I got 10, 20 more years of doing this,” that perhaps you might invest back in the practice? What are those things?

It’s important to get them to honestly say, “Hey, I would probably fix this.”

Christy: Might add a chair, and this office is too big and I’ve always thought it could take another chair here, right? Yeah. That’s an easy thing that someone might have thought, but I don’t wanna make the investment ’cause I know I only have five years left or something.

Charles: Yeah. This CAD/CAM is working and functional, but it’s seven years old. I might upgrade it. This piece of technology is working but, hey, I could upgrade it to this piece of technology.

You’re getting that. You’re getting that doctor to basically say, “Hey, here’s my house.”

AC is 20 years old, and the roof is 20 years old. And so, I know when you probably buy it, there’s probably a good chance you may ask for some concessions. Remember when we’re purchasing a practice, concessions are not necessarily price. There’s lots of different things that we can get concessions on.

It’s a different episode. Right now, we’re just trying to get the doctor to open up about the practice, about the team, about the patients. But in this case, for the building we’re thinking about, other things could be the landlord. It could be where do the patients park? Is there plenty of parking?

It could be signage. Is there a building? Is it for sale? That’s something we want to invest in as well. Is that something they’re willing to maybe part with? Or maybe they wanna sell the practice but hold on for some real estate income. We’ve talked about that as well in other episodes.

This interview is just some quick-hit pieces. And I really think I like your advice, Christy, with this is a list. I certainly don’t wanna cut people off. I do think that if there was an allotted time, hour and a half of this interview, I think even showing that doctor, “Hey, I came prepared and maybe I come over-prepared.

I actually have eight different topics that I was gonna ask you today.” And all that does for the interviewer is to now, “Hey, we’re past the time. I know you had six or seven topics. I think we’ve just talked about one topic.”

What other things did you have?

And so now that it becomes a much more engaging conversation where they’re saying, “What else do you wanna know?”

And then now you can go through some of those. And then if it gets to the point where it’s a little too much, then that’s where the follow-up would take place.

Christy: Absolutely. And there are other topics like, that might come out in those initial questions. Like marketing is another area that I think that you can look at in two ways.

Maybe that comes out when you’re talking about patients and what makes this practice so special, ’cause you talk about new patients and how we get patients. Maybe it’s that they’re patient-based. There’s a lot of internal referrals, and that’s where most of their patients come from, and that’s what makes it special.

Or you might have looked online and that they have a ton of Google reviews or they have a really big TikTok or Instagram presence. Or you might see that they have none of that. And I think that should guide your questions. If it’s clear that they don’t have a website, they’re not doing a lot for marketing, they’ve never mentioned anything, you don’t even have to ask about marketing, right?

I know. But if it’s, hey, they’ve got a great TikTok. “Hey, I noticed your TikTok. It’s hilarious. I love it. Do you get a lot of patients from that? Or is that just something you and your team enjoy doing?” To understand, like how important is this? Is this actually something they’re doing to get patients and retain patients?

Or is this just, it’s a fun outlet for the team to have a good time and it doesn’t hurt?

Charles: I think of this when we’re talking about marketing in two different ways. If I’m thinking about a practice I’m purchasing and I… it’s a smaller practice, like $600,000, there’s more than likely gonna be zero marketing internal, external.

If I’m thinking about it from the perspective of I’m an associate and gonna go in as a partner, and new patient flow and the increase of the business is, like, the number one thing, I might spend some time on here, internally and externally, ’cause I wanna be able to see and have answers to that new patient flow that’s gonna justify me coming in as the associate. So this would be one of those things where, depending on the size of the practice and it’s a walk-away sale, that I may spend some more time on maybe in the due diligence.

Christy: 100% agree. Another topic, and probably the last major topic we would talk about here is the actual transition, right? So if it is very clear that they are wanting to sell 100% or they’re wanting to bring you on as a partner, I think understanding and you haven’t had a lot of conversations about the transition itself, the interview can be a good time to open the door to that conversation, okay?

It’s important that it is not targeted direct questions that require them to give you specific answers, because if they are not far into their journey, they may not have all the answers, and that can make someone feel uncomfortable. But I think asking, what would be your goal in a transition?

Or what does your ideal transition look like? That is a big enough question for you to gauge how much they’ve thought about it and what matters and maybe what they haven’t thought about that might pose an issue for you or for the transition.

Charles: And I know we talked about, maybe being able to skip over some things.

This is one I don’t skip over. Yeah, because this is are we gonna go on a second date? This question to me is critical. I think that you’ve taken notes through this whole interview and we’ve gotten through a lot of these areas from the team and the building and the patients, et cetera, but we have to close.

You know, the next close is always how do we get to the next meeting? And so being able to open up that with, I know that this is the largest decision you’re probably making. It’s probably one of the largest decisions I’m making. As you consider transitioning your practice, considering an associate, transitioning 100%, I would love to hear just that vision, that perfect timeline of things.

How do you see this? Have you thought about a team that maybe would help execute this? But really, just even timelines.

And just get them to open up. And this is a very important time to take those notes, especially when they say things like, “Maybe over the next five years.” That’s a long time.

And is very broad. To, “Definitely would like to sell the practice in the next year.”

Whatever that is, we’re writing down, and then can you expand on that?

And then from there, does that match basically what you’re looking for? The mentorship, the timing for you, the size of practice, the location.

It just needs to match kind of your long-term vision. And there’s just, depending on obviously the size of the practice. It could be a larger practice where we need to incorporate them back in the practice. So if we’ve asked and gone down those roads, they’re doing all these clinical procedures that you can’t do, then of course we need them there, and we need them to be there for at least a year and they’re saying they’re ready to sell the whole thing and, “Here are the keys and the coat,” but yet I can’t do those clinical procedures, so there’s a thought process of why we’re asking these questions, ’cause we’re building up to now how does it work in the transition, and does that meet kind of your transition goals and expectations?

Certainly good closing questions, and then ultimately where do we go from here? What is our next meeting and appointment that we can go ahead and put on the schedule? And would you mind after this meeting my ability to recap some of the notes and what we discussed, some of the things you shared with me, as well as some additional questions I wasn’t able to get to.

And then that leads to, and if you feel comfortable, your ability to share some of the financials of the practice with me, as I have a team already kinda put together to help review these, and they know my transition goals, and are just kinda on standby, that I would grab this information and share with them.

And so I’m just anxious to get into ownership in a reasonable amount of time. And I love everything you shared, and I think I would be a great fit.

Okay? You’ve recapped everything. You expressed your interest to move forward with the next meeting, expressed your interest to be an owner, and you’ve even let them know that you’ve got a team built up basically behind you to support you through that process.

Christy: Yep. And I would add that if for whatever reason there’s not going to be an opportunity for a second meeting, everything Charles just said is accurate. You wouldn’t ask for the second meeting, and you might consider ending with a kinda final question of just, “Hey, what advice would you give a new owner?”

If you could go back in time 20 years and kinda do some things over, what would you do again? What would you not do again? What different move might you make? I think that is very… you’re not asking them to talk about you. You’re asking them for some advice. And I think Charles and I joke, but as we get older, we just wanna give all the advice and help and mentor.

And I just, I think it shows some reflection, and I think it shows some maturity of saying, “Hey, I know I’m not gonna do everything right, and I’m looking for advice from you.” So I think if you have a final wrap-up question, I would try to make it something like that.

I feel like that’s… you actually close with that. I like your strategy better. Let’s get the appointment on the books, but then we’re gonna end with a little something different.

So the appointment is scheduled. It’s your close, but you’re not letting them go yet.

And we’re… one more question. I got one more question.

What would you advise this young person, knowing what you know, and all the 25 years or 30 years of training? What’s the one or two, two to three things that you would advise me clinically? It could be financially, a consultant, moving fee, anything.

What would you tell me?

Christy: Yeah. And I think that gives both of you something to… very positive note to end on.

Charles: It’s a very relaxed- It’s just something natural that you can smile and it’s almost like your whole posture is changing.

And we’re just hanging out.

Christy: This hopefully is helpful as you look to interview and go explore these practice opportunities. I know that they can be scary and they can be challenging. But I think like anything in life, the right preparation, the right thought, the right research, the right data can help you do anything.

So go back and listen to episode three, do’s and don’ts, how do we prep for it, how do we follow up. Some of what Charles spoke about today is in there. And then clearly the content of what you’re gonna talk about is what’s gonna be remembered. That’s all we have for today, team. Thanks for joining us on episode 154 of Transition Talk.

As always, make sure to share the love with those who may not know of us yet, and of course subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. Until next time.